Only number 1 and number 2 plastics are curbside recyclable in Montclair.  Number 5 plastics can be taken to Whole Foods for recycling. All other plastics should be discarded as waste. Failure to follow these rules, or failure to recycle at all, wastes hundreds of thousands of  taxpayer’s dollars each year. Watch the do’s and don’ts of recycling here.

Idling your car for more than 3 minutes is against the law, wastes gas and money, and is detrimental to the environment.

We are part of BlueWaveNJ (www.bluewavenj.org), a progressive grassroots organization in Montclair, NJ. The goals of the working group are to:

1. • Help educate the community about the interrelationship between fossil fuel combustion and global warming, and;
   

2. • Support actions and policies that promote conservation, energy efficiency, recycling, alternative fuel development/utilization and other initiatives that will enhance the sustainability of our local, state, national and global environment. 
   

Substantial and immediate actions from both the “top down” (i.e., state and federal action) and “bottom up” (i.e., local and individual action) are required to mitigate the very real potential for catastrophic consequences of climate change in the coming decades. Since coming into existence over 2 years ago, the working group has been working from the “bottom up” to help reduce our collective carbon footprint. Activities we have sponsored or co-sponsored include:

1. • Organizing local hardware stores to discount compact fluorescent bulb sales on Earth Day.
   

2. • Recycling educational and promotional events.
   

3. • Guest lecturer on sustainable living and environmental issues.
   

4. • An environmental forum with candidates running for Town Council (www.montclairtimes.com/NC/0/14.html).
   

5. • Petitions to stop mountaintop removal.
   

In the coming year some of our planned projects include a more aggressive campaign to promote recycling and energy conservation in Montclair, lobby the Town Council to implement environmentally sound policies that will decrease the Municipality’s greenhouse gas emissions and support State and Federal legislation promoting energy efficiency, conservation and other policies essential to decrease the nation’s carbon footprint. Please contact Michael Yellin at greenmontclairnj@yahoo.com if you want to join the working group, would like more information or want to join the working group email distribution list.

Finally, in addition to highlighting the working group’s activities, the intention of this website is to also provide a conduit for environmentally related issues and activities occurring in Montclair. We will host links to relevant websites and a calendar of environmentally related events occurring in the general Montclair area. Please feel free to send me notifications of upcoming events and I will post the event on the calendar.  We will also host a blog, to discuss local issues, as well as discuss some of the science behind global warming and climate change. Also welcomed are advertisements for display on the website from local businesses and restaurants who are truly committed to environmental issues and sustainability.

Michael Yellin

Montclair, NJ

Chairperson, BlueWaveNJ Energy and Global Warming Working Group

greenmontclairnj@yahoo.com

Global Warming Denier’s Myth Buster Video of the Week

Global warming deniers claim earth is a
“carbon starved world” compared to eons ago. Watch this video to learn why their arguments are specious and deeply flawed.

For additional informative videos on the crock cited by global warming deniers visit the Science page on our website or go to “Greenman3610” on YouTube

At the December, 2011 meeting of the American Geophysical Union, Dr. James Hansen and colleagues discuss the looming catastrophe that awaits our children if we continue the status quo or extract unconventional oil such as found in Canadian tar sands (Keystone XL pipeline project). The press conference and Q&A afterwards is long, 54 minutes, but it's well worth the time if you have any curiosity about the not-to-distant future of this planet. For those who want the Cliffsnotes version: we are looking at 25-70 meter rise in ocean levels, depending on whether just Greenland or the entire planet becomes ice-free. Either way, say goodbye to NYC, Florida and New Orleans.